The Ghost Town of Denniston

High up on a plateau sits the remains of Denniston, the bleak home of miners and their families for nearly 90 years.  Conditions up there were cold, windy and dangerous and central to the operations was the Denniston Incline – called “The 8th Wonder of the World”.  The whole area is now named the Denniston Reserve, and the remaining artefacts are complemented by the extensive information boards.

Denniston Reserve

Denniston mine and housing

The Denniston Incline delivered coal from the plateau down to Conns Creek yards and was one of the steepest railways in the world.   Working with a simple counter balance system, the weight of a full wagon going down pulled an empty wagon up.  Huge hydraulic brakes slowed the heavy wagons as they descended 2000ft to the bottom. 

Full coal wagons going over the incline

Remains left behind

The work was dirty and dangerous and the men had to work as a team as they handled the heavy wagons.  Brakemen, donkeymen, hookmen, rope pullers, bows men and more, they all had to trust that the other workers would be alert and attentive so that everyone would be safe.  The boys working as clippers had to clip and unclip the coal tubs from the endless rope.  In winter the clippers would run into the smoko room between working batches of tubs, plunge their frozen fingers into a can of hot water to thaw their frozen fingers out.   No doubt many of them lost fingers doing this work.  This was long before occupational health and safety played a big part in the workplace

Clippers at work on the endless rope

The first wagon of coal descended down the incline in 1880 and the last wagon went down in 1967.  A combination of falling sales and high maintenance costs signals the end of the mining operation.  The final death knell came when the mine was severely damaged in the Murchison Earthquake in 1968. Down at Conns Creek we could look up at the plateau and appreciate the incline from the other end. 

Coal wagon at Conns Creek

The rail came down here

In the foreground of the above picture can be seen the remains of a iron bridge that spanned a small stream. It does not take much to imagine a coal wagon hurtling down this slope at upwards of 80k/hour and flying over this bridge, it must have been an awesome sight.

This wagon didn’t survive the journey down

Coal mining has not completely finished in Denniston and small scale coal mining still takes place high up on the plateau.

 Still coal mining in Denniston

View from the plateau

The Institute of Professional Engineers recognises the Denniston Incline as one of New Zealand’s outstanding engineering feats.  It may well be gone, but the story lives on.